The Yankees needed a lot of things after last night's 19-inning marathon. They needed to start playing better defense, they needed to start hitting more and hitting better situationally on offense, and they needed to do a MUUUUCH better job running the bases. Basically every key fundamental part of the game they needed to do better.

But first and foremost, they needed to get a good starting pitching performance from Adam Warren to help ease the burden on the burned out bullpen. That's pretty much what they got from Warren in his 5.1 innings too. He was by no means great. He walked 2 and struck out only 1. But he got 12 swings and misses, he made big pitches when he had to, and he worked out of most of the trouble he created. Of the 2 runs he gave up, 1 came in part because of an A-Rod error at first in the top of the 2nd. The other came on a 2-out single-walk-single rally by the Red Sox in the 4th. That one's on Warren, but 2 runs in 5+ innings from your #5 starter should be plenty good enough to win.

Except when you don't hit, and that's exactly what the Yankees continued to do this afternoon. The lineup was probably at half strength at best with multiple guys getting a rest, and Boston starter Joe Kelly plowed through them like they didn't exist in his 7 innings of 1-run ball. The run came in the bottom of the 2nd when A-Rod started the inning with a single, moved to third on a walk and a wild pitch, and scored on Didi Gregorius' sac fly. After that inning, the Yanks didn't get another hit until there were 2 outs in the 8th.

That level of offensive ineptitude only served to give a depleted bullpen no margin for error, and there was plenty of error. Justin Wilson and Chris Martin combined to make a mess of the 7th inning, with Dustin Pedroia's 2-run double coming as the big blow. More shoddy infield defense, the natural outcome of Garrett Jones playing the outfield, and some shaky 2-out pitching by Matt Tracy in his MLB debut balloon the lead to 8-1 in the 8th.

And right on cue, September 2014 hero Chris Young strode the plate with nothing on the line in the bottom of the 9th and smacked a 3-run home run to make the final result appear much more respectable than this game actually was. Please don't be fooled by the 4 runs. The Yankees were awful in this game. Putrid. The were ouclassed in every facet of the game and they deserved to lose by more than 4 runs.

Game Notes:

- Full line on Warren: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 1 K. Threw 98 pitches, 60 strikes. I'll take that from him every turn through the rotation.

- It was a rough day for A-Rod at first base today, with a full 9 innings of Major League competition showing how inexperienced he is at the position far better than a handful of ST innings ever could. Hard to blame him though. He's just playing where he's told to play.

- Carlos Beltran went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts from the 3-spot, and from what I've been reading on Twitter it sounds like he looks really bad. You can take a slow 5-game start when a guy is at least having good at-bats and taking good swings. It doesn't sound like Beltran is doing any of that. That's concerning.

- Sounded like it was a tough day behind the plate for John Ryan Murphy too. Remember that, people who are ready to run Brian McCann out of town next week.

- The results weren't great (2 IP, 3 R, 2 BB), but props to Tracy for making his debut today. That's a dream of anybody who plays pro baseball, and it's cool when guys get to do it.